I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop and post about finding affordable smartphone service with unlimited plans has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. My husband has a cell phone through his employer, but they aren’t allowed to use the phones for personal calls or texts. This is understandable, but also frustrating. If he’s running really late and out in the field, he’s not able to call and say, “hey! I’m running late!” and he also can’t check emails in the event I’ve sent him something time sensitive. I think the worst part for him (first world problems…) is that he can’t send or receive pictures of the kids at all. Or pictures of anything, really.

We’ve wanted to do a smartphone for my husband for a while now- it just makes sense with him on the road all the time for work- he’s all over Connecticut and frequently in Massachusetts. We’ve held off a long time because we simply didn’t want to pay for already expensive cellular service plus an additional $30 a month for data with a 2 year contract commitment. It’s not a need and not something we were willing to do. So we’ve been looking around and waiting and researching for plans that have NO commitment, no contract, and offer affordable smartphone service. I think we have found that in the Walmart Family Mobile plans.

With the Walmart Family Mobile program, consumers like us who aren’t looking-or willing- to pay high prices for a contracted amount of time can find devices AND plans that are affordable. Several devices are on rollback right now (including the Concord that we received for this review, priced down to $79.88 from $99.88 and the MyTouch device which is $129.88 from $149.88). I’m not telling you about the devices to recommend them or not- I’m trying to just show that there are affordable options for the Family Mobile plan that are out there. There’s several different phones available through this program which is brought to you by T-Mobile. You can also bring your own phone to the plan and just get the activation kit with a SIM card- just be sure your phone is a GSM phone so it’ll be compatible.

Here’s what got us so excited to give the Family Mobile unlimited plans a go- there are plan rollbacks that are available: $39.88 for unlimited talk, text and web and $29.88 for unlimited talk and text (great for new users and kids). Remember, NO contract. The $39.88 is less than we were paying when I was with a contract service for my phone and zero texts, zero web. Just phone. Basic phone. This is a whole lot more without a commitment. Good grief, am I making us sound like we’re commitment-phobic? I mean, obviously we aren’t since we got married but if you didn’t know better…you might think we are. The activation kit is just $25.

We have started our Family Mobile journey and will be updating in a month or so with what we think of the phone and service. Stay tuned…

My family would save so much by switching!! I’m kicking myself for not having checked out the Walmart Family Mobile plans sooner. I think I’ve always been a bit skeptical about pre-pay or no contract plans but I’ve heard great things about these plans and I’ve certainly had enough of our pricey contract! Thanks so much for sharing your find – looking forward to reading more about your experience

Another affordable wireless service plan is GIV Mobile. GIV Mobile is the first no-contract wireless service that is dedicated to donating 8% of a customer’s monthly bill to a nonprofit charity of their choice. Some of the charities GIV Mobile supports include Ronald McDonald House Charities, Scholarship America and Kids In Need Foundation. Customers can choose from “Unlimited Everything” plans that start as low as $40/month for unlimited talk, text and data.

We actually have this plan for like 3 month now and LOVE it… the price is amazing and the service is GREAT… I bet you guys will enjoy it, too …. Can’t beat it. My kids are getting their phone soon, too… Can’t wait to hear how you like it….

Brett, I can’t wait to hear how this works out for you! I keep meaning to look into this to find out if the data plan is unlimited too, but I haven’t gotten a chance yet. I really need an affordable option for data – I kind of gave up on finding a plan for my unlocked iPhone for now because none of the plans with reception in my area offered enough data even at the highest price. Between the reception, how much data you get, and the fine print, shopping for cell plans makes my head hurt. LOL! So, looking forward to seeing your thoughts on this and learning more!

NO CONTRACT makes me so happy! I really need to get in on this because our phone bills have been through the roof. Can you believe that I had text messaging disabled so that I wouldn’t be charged 25-cents to receive texts and when I got my new iPhone, they changed the setting that blocks texts. I received a bunch of texts that I wasn’t even paying attention to and then realized what they were when I got the bill. Oh…. I am all about a new phone carrier without contracts after that surprise!